User:Bechtd/Chat Profanity Filter

= The Game's Greedy Profanity Filter in Chat = [I don't see a page for this in the wiki, and because of the topic, and this being full of personal opinion, I am not going to add one (just in case).]

I find Disruptor Beam's (DB) Profanity filter hilariously over-zealous. Starting with the word "damn". All profanity is replaced with the string @#!%!. Personally, the word damn is so mundane, I find it silly that it's blocked. What is this? The 1950s? Given the state of Internet short-speak, it's easily subverted by a simple, and arguably more logical and efficient, misspelling. People will get your meaning when you write dam. I would argue that it's more like people don't know how to spell damn properly, and yet their intent will be perfectly clear, since dam isn't blocked (and after all, isn't profanity really about intent?)

And that is where the fun begins. People WANT to write profanity, especially since the game has so many moments that make you want to yell some, and may actually do so (like the game crashing, at least in iOS, especially during Battles, especially Arena Battles, especially Arena Battles you are winning; that's a whole other topic for a rant (crashes), in and of itself).

In fact, profanity filters actually encourage profanity, as people get curious about the list of banned words and start rattling off the worst things they can think of. Alternatively, the profanity filter inadvertently teaches people new profanity, usually in a foreign (to them) language, such as puta (Spanish) and fitta (Swedish). You discover these by accident while trying to write complete legitimate words, such as reputation as in faction reputation, which is, hilariously, an actual term IN THE GAME!, and retrofitted, something you might do with a starship.

Additionally, the list is completely arbitrary. Anus is banned, but anal is OK. Penis is banned, but vagina is OK.

Why?!

Quickly, people find creative, fun ways to subvert the filter. First, you start with the simple solution of inserting an easily ignored character into the word, like da.mn. However, that appears awkward. Soon, you realize you are playing this on a very modern smart phone or tablet (most likely), that has access to a whole slew of "non-English" letters, which would still make intent perfectly clear to readers, such as "dámn" and "dämn". And the keyboard has multiple alternatives for all of the vowels: áèîöū. Therefore, the whole profanity filter is pointless. As the Borg put it, "we will adapt. Resistance is futile." Players find a way.

But, the worst aspect of the filter is that it is greedy. Stupidly greedy. What I mean by that is that it filters any word that contains a profane word, as a sub-string. Therefore, completely legitimate words get filtered, and results in making your intent look far more sinister than was ever intended. I consider this to be lazy programming. My gut tells me that some C-level at Disruptor Beam insisted upon it, and the programmers (also finding it to be silly and stupid) intentionally half-assed it. If you are going to write a profanity filter, put a little more effort into it, or don't even bother. Understand that, in the end, it's a losing battle. Players will always find a simple way to beat your [| Kobayashi Maru].

You are far better off empowering users to self-regulate. The Block button works (though I understand it did not, at launch), and I have used it. Beyond that, Report along with DB promoting some active, responsible players to act as forum moderators (completely voluntarily) to respond to the Report actions, and then Temp-bans and if repeated often, Perma-ban from Universe Chat (though not game, and not Fleet or Squadron chat; the Leader and other members will regulate that by kicking out obnoxious people) are much better options. Communities can self regulate. Empower your users. Show them the respect and trust they deserve.

Discussions on the Matter
https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/48569/#200722

Legitimate Words

 * accumulated
 * People see: "Somehow, I have @#!%! a lot of Chrons"
 * People think: "Somehow, I have shit a lot of Chrons"
 * amusement
 * People see: This game's @#!%! is starting to wear off."
 * basement
 * People see: "There's no @#!%! in the Alamo!"
 * People think: "There's no shitting in the Alamo!"
 * bitch
 * legitimate word for "female dog"; | seriously
 * cock
 * legitimate word for "rooster"
 * cockroach
 * People see: "I just stepped on a @#!%! that was on the ground"
 * People think: "I just stepped on a shit that was on the ground"
 * cocktail
 * People see: "I just immortalized a crew member. Time to enjoy a nice @#!%! and relax"
 * People think: "I just immortalized a crew member. Time to enjoy a nice fuck and relax"
 * distrustful
 * People see: "I find DB's reasons for filtering words most @#!%!"
 * People think: "I find DB's reasons for filtering words most fucked"
 * documentary
 * People see: "I wonder if DB will make a @#!%! about the creation of this game."
 * neighborhood
 * People see: "There goes the @#!%!."
 * People think: "There goes the bitch."
 * racist
 * People see: "Trust me, this has NO positive effect on people being @#!%! within the UC"
 * People think: "Trust me, this has NO positive effect on people being shitheads within the UC"
 * Actually, that one works.
 * reputation
 * People see: "How do I increase my faction @#!%!?"
 * People think: "How do I increase my faction shit?"
 * | Go nuts
 * retrofitted
 * People see: "This looks like the version of the Enterprise before it was @#!%!"
 * People think: "This looks like the version of the Enterprise before it was fucked"
 * scrap
 * People see: "For the replicator, you can use any @#!%! you have in abundance."
 * People think: "For the replicator, you can use any shit you have in abundance."
 * | Enjoy
 * snowball
 * A complete head-scratcher
 * People see: "My brother and I were outside having a @#!%! fight."
 * People think: "My brother and I were outside having a fucking fight."

Legitimate Names
This one is so great, it needs its own section.
 * Dick
 * Cumberbatch
 * Yep, the 2nd Khan is NOT to be named!
 * HBO
 * People see: "It's not TV, it's @#!%!."
 * People think: "It's not TV, it's bullshit."
 * Obama
 * Seriously, this is filtered
 * This isn't an effective way to block discussion of politics. It happens anyway.
 * Clinton
 * See above.
 * Naruto
 * Uranus
 * I find this one to be the funniest, given that this is a game about space travel, and we can't even write all of the planets within our own Solar system.
 * People see: "Leaving Jupiter station, we flew right past @#!%!"
 * People think: "Leaving Jupiter station, we flew right past shit"

List of Profane Words (see | George Carlin)

 * anus
 * seriously, that's just anatomy
 * appears in a few legitimate words
 * bitch
 * chunk
 * seriously having problems understanding this one.
 * "Goonies never say profanity!"
 * cock
 * appears in a few legitimate words
 * crap
 * cunt
 * damn
 * fitt
 * fitta - Swedish
 * fitte - Norwegian
 * apparently equivalent to cunt
 * fuck
 * hoor
 * a misspelling of whore
 * penis
 * again, legitimate anatomy
 * puta
 * you're welcome Español amigos
 * this word completely ruins DB's reputation
 * semen
 * appears in a few legitimate words
 * shit
 * stfu
 * as in shut the fuck up
 * tits
 * twat
 * wop
 * "The computer in the movie WarGames had the initials @#!%!"; it was WOPR
 * interestingly, dago isn't blocked, so you can mention that "Yoda lived on Dagobah"

List of Drugs

 * cocaine
 * heroin
 * You cannot mention the word heroine (as in "female hero").
 * People see: "Our hero saved the @#!%!".
 * People think: "Our hero saved the bitch".
 * marijuana

Words you'd think would be filtered

 * anal
 * wait ... they filtered anus but not anal; yeah, that makes sense
 * ass
 * donkeys rejoice! You are now OK.
 * dago
 * you've blocked wop, why not this?
 * piss
 * times have changed, I guess (but not for damn; so so naughty)
 * vagina
 * they filtered penis and anus (seems sexist)

Addendum
Somehow (I haven't yet figured out how) some players have figured out how to insert a non-printable character into words, which seems to have the side-effect of forcing a newline at the end of that word. Doing this, they can clearly write out profane words, using no apparent letters with accent symbols. My guess is they are somehow embedding a "NULL" or "CR" or "LF" character into the text, but I have, as of yet, no idea what special character they are using.

UPDATE (2016-10-04)
I have figured it out. It helps to be a software developer who knows C programming.

As I suspected, the game allows you to use certain "special, non-printing" symbols. The two that so far are most handy are:
 * \r
 * 1) * Carriage Return (AKA CR)
 * \n
 * 1) * New line (AKA Line Feed, LF)

You use them like this:

I can now write any\nfucking\rf\nthing I want.

The one caveat, as I mentioned above, is that the word which contains the profanity appears on its own line.

While this allows you to write any word now, it's horribly awkward way to do this. It is far far simpler to just use a special vowel.

2nd UPDATE (2016-10-05)
UNICODE!

Unicode is your friend! Forget \r and \n. Let's take it up a notch.

Today (one day after figuring out \r), I discovered that the game does process Unicode, but the profanity filter DOES NOT!

As a test I typed into Universe chat: Did they finally turn off the f\u0075cking useless profanity filter?

People started testing it and failing, and then cursing me out (which of course was filtered).

It's | Unicode.

\u0041 = A

\u005a = Z

\u0061 = a

\u007a = z

So far, every profane word has a vowel, so here's the cheat sheet:

\u0061 = a

\u0065 = e

\u0069 = i

\u006f = o

\u0075 = u

\u0041 = A

\u0045 = E

\u0049 = I

\u004f = O

\u0055 = U